Friday, May 27, 2011

David DeJesus: 2nd Best Outfielder On Most Playoff Teams, 4th On None

Robert Ford of 610 AM is becoming my blogging muse. After he opined that Kevin Appier was not an ace, I dug through Appier's career to show that he clearly was. Now he has tweeted that David DeJesus "would be a 4th OF on most contending teams."

This is not the first time Ford has said as much. Clark Fosler refuted the same claim by Ford a year ago on Royals Authority. With DeJesus long gone from KC and off to a poor start in Oakland, this topic is anything but timely for Royals fans, but Ford's comment still rankled me. We have had so few good players in recent Royals history that I hate to see one of them so under appreciated.

I have looked at the outfielders of the 24 AL playoff teams between 2005-10 to see where DeJesus would have fit on each team by Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement. And while I knew DeJesus was no fourth outfielder, he comes out looking even better than I expected. Not a single AL playoff team had three outfielders with a higher WAR than DeJesus in the last six seasons. He would have been the best outfielder (by WAR) on eight of the 24 playoff teams during that stretch, or one in three. On average, he would have been the second best outfielder on those teams.

Ford argued further on Twitter that DeJesus does not have the power that teams covet in their corner outfielders, which may be true, but playoff teams have not been able to do any better than the fantastically under-loved David DeJesus. I did not like the Royals trading him to Oakland when it happened, and I like it even less now.

After the jump, you can see where DeJesus would have ranked in all of the AL playoff outfields over the last six seasons.